Hatsukoi
by Ashe Corinthos
Summary: "We can't ever forget our promise now." -A confession and a promise between two young souls. A love that starts early.


" _Riiiiin,_ wait up for me!"

"Hurry up slowpoke, you're taking forever! C'mon!"

The sound of small feet thudding along the ground is one of the few sounds besides the two children's energetic voices. A cool spring wind blows alongside them as they follow their rural path through the forest, douses in the sunset's gently waning rays.

The blond boy struggling to keep pace with the girl several feet in front of him pants heavily, running after her and trying not to lose sight of her. He remembers what his mother had said before they'd gone out to play; " _Don't go out too far, and keep Rin safe. She's younger than you, after all, so you have to watch out for her."_

Not that he needed to be told that, the ten year old thought with annoyance. He would always keep an eye on his best friend. Always had and always will, no matter what happened. Though she's only a year younger herself, and could probably defend herself pretty well if her unmerciful punches meant anything.

Still though, it'd be nice if she'd at least give him a _tiny break_ right about now!

"Come on, it's not much farther!" she calls back to him, her golden yellow hair catching the light filtering through the trees around them, turning it into what resembles a glowing halo. "Jeez, you take forever, Len!"

Len grumbles under his breath in response, low enough she can't hear because he knows she'd probably come over and smack him for it.

A few moments pass of breaking twigs and crumbling leaves under their feet- then Rin lets out a happy squawk.

"There! There it is!"

The boy follows her gaze and the direction of her extended, pointed finger to see a small pond littered with lily pads close by. The water vaguely ripples with movement as a frog hops across its surface and disappears beneath it.

"Isn't it so neat, Len?" Rin gushes with pride, slowing down enough for him to finally make it to her side. She wanders closer to it, her knee-length layered skirt billowing gently along her slim legs in the breeze. Nearing its edge she crouches down, staring into her mirror-like reflection.

He has to admit that yes, it is kinda cool to see it. He follows after her loyally, standing beside her to look around. It's peaceful here, the sounds of nature the music to complete the scene. Though it may not be the most exciting thing he could think of, it's not exactly bad either.

"...Yeah," he says, a small smile settling on his lips. "I like it."

"Guess what, Len?" Rin says, turning her head to peer up at him. "Guess what I want to do when I'm older?"

"Huh? What?"

"I wanna get married right here!"

The exclamation takes a moment to process in the young man's head- then he practically doubles over.

"M- _Married?_ You wanna get _married?_ " He can't keep the shock out of his voice. He'd only heard about this kind of thing a few times before in his life, and it's super strange for him to hear Rin say something like it herself.

"Yeah, definitely!" Pulling herself back into an upright stance, she turns to him, a vibrant and wide grin on her face. "And I wanna get married to you!"

This time Len chokes on air. " _What?!_ Why me? Don't you- don't you gotta marry somebody you love or something?" He can't keep the vivid blush off his cheeks now. Suddenly his young mind is filled with a lot of images of Rin in a pretty white dress, and he feels increasingly embarrassed. Him, marrying her?

Even Rin is a bit red-faced now, too, as she musters up an answer. "Well, yeah, silly! That's what getting married's for! That's why I wanna marry you when I'm an adult; I love you more than anybody!"

He's at a loss for words, unable to figure out how to answer that. Though not very interested in girls in general, he can't deny that he cares about Rin. Maybe he does love her- but does he just say it to her like she did? Isn't that weird?

"B-but…" he fumbles with words, not sure what to tell her.

She sees the way his expression flickers, and her own smile falters. "Lenny, don't you love me? I'm your best friend, aren't I? Don't you like me…?"

Oh no. She looks like she's going to cry. He backpedals fast, spewing out whatever comes to mind first.

"U-uh, yeah! I mean, yeah, I do, 'course I do!" He anxiously rubs the back of his head, looking away from her into the water to prevent some of the embarrassment. "I mean, you're the only girl I like being around anyway, so I mean I wouldn't mind… g-getting married someday…"

Rin squeals happily, the sadness in her expression disappearing. "You promise? You really want to?" she asks brightly. Though the sun's all but disappeared from the sky and darkness is descending upon them now, he can still see how brilliant her smile is. "So does that mean you love me?"

At least it's dark enough she can't really tell he's blushing. "Um… yeah. I, uh- it does."

She pauses. "Can you… say it?"

"Say what?" he asks obliviously.

"Say that you love me?"

He blinks, confused. "I just did, didn't I?"

"Nooo!" Her outburst startles him. "You only said 'yeah it does'. You gotta actually say it to mean it!" Her sapphire eyes glitter as she stares into him.

Oh boy.

"I… _okay._ I l-love you, and I promise to get married to you." Man, that might be the most embarrassing thing he's ever said in his ten years of life. His face is burning.

However, this seems to appease her, considering how fast she reacts. "I'm so happy! That means there's only one more thing we gotta do."

Len tilts his head, a bit concerned. "Huh? What's th-"

Before he can finish his question, suddenly Rin's standing up on her tiptoes and pressing her lips into his without a second thought. He's frozen stiff in surprise at the quick action, noting how her nose bumped into his accidentally and that her lips are a little bit moist and soft, and- uhhh what is _happening-_

He stumbles backwards when she moves away after the brief kiss, horrified and rubbing his face where it slightly stings. It isn't the fact that it felt gross or something- actually, it was kind of weirdly _nice_ but he won't admit that- but that it was so uncalled for. And it was his first kiss, too, so he has no idea how to act.

"W-what was that for?" he demands hotly, cheeks burning.

"That was to seal our promise!" she tells him, seeming unrepentant for it, if too enthusiastic. "Now we have to keep it, y'know? We definitely gotta get married now."

His breathing is rampant, and all he can do is stare at that devious, unpredictable girl in front of him. She always does things he doesn't expect, sometimes things like this that make his head swirl and his heart act funny.

...Still, it's not like he really minded after all that she kissed him, but-

"Y-You can't just do that without telling me!" he protests. "I wasn't ready!"

Rin frowns a bit. "Oh… sorry, Len. If you wanna, you can do it to me, I don't mind at all."

Her soulful gaze bores into him, and his protests catch in his throat at her offer. Do it again? It was one thing to be kissed by Rin, but if _he_ does it-

"M-me?" he hesitates.

She nods. "Yeah, it can be so you can seal the promise yourself too. And…" Her gaze tilts down, and he's surprised to see she's acting bashful. "I… I kinda like it, so…"

Oh.

 _Oh._

"You… Do you want me to?" he asks, not sure why he's even going that far. He doesn't want to, does he? Wait, _does_ he? Nono- all this stuff is so confusing…

Her head bobs up and down, and his heart jumps strangely.

"Well- fine then." Playing it off as if it's just as payback for earlier, he nods as well.

With a little bit of hesitance, he leans down and carefully touches his lips to hers again, making sure not to painfully bump into her nose like she'd done to him. It lasts about two seconds, quick as can be to save him from any more shame, but he has to admit that doing it really isn't so bad. It's kind of soft and pleasant. It's also really weird how when it happens, his body goes into warp drive and he gets almost excited, his chest gets tight- things he'd never really felt before now.

When he pulls back, it dawns on him how dark it's become. Who knows how long they've been standing here beside this pond- their parents are going to get worried.

Rin, however, smiles at him. Reaching over, she takes his hand in hers, squeezing it lightly with her small fingers.

"I'm really glad that you're my best friend," she tells him. "I'll love you forever."

She keeps saying things like that-! He hasn't blushed this much in his whole life.

All he can do is reciprocate at this point- his mind is kinda fried. "Y-yeah… I'm glad too. I kinda… wanna get married for sure now." Wait, what? Did he just say that? Good grief, now _he's_ saying unnecessary things.

Rin throws her arms around him and hugs him, startling him. He awkwardly pats her back, returning the action.

"We will for sure! We can't ever forget our promise now." The blonde girl grins at him. "After all, I gave you my first kiss ever."

The boy's mouth opens and closes much like a fish out of water's, and she giggles enthusiastically.

"Come on, Len, we better get home- but let's come here again soon! I definitely want to do this more often!"

Tugging the boy forward, she starts dragging him back the way they'd come in the now very dark woods (thankfully they hadn't gone too far from home). Len's lost in his thoughts however, his gaze glued to the back of the pretty young girl in front of him.

As weird as it is to think about it, he has to admit… this whole 'first love' thing isn't all too bad.

* * *

A/N: **unbeta'd,** written in **silence.**

So I'm not dead I promise haha. I have a note on my profile about my absence as of late, and if you care to read about it, thank you. If not that's cool too :3

Anyways, glad to be back. I'm hopefully going to try and write more. For now forgive this piece, it's not all too great but I wrote it spur of the moment because I've been stressing about not writing for a good month now. I'm sorry for nothing new since February *inhales*

However, I've noticed that my stories have still been read and that I'm still gaining favorites/follows somehow, so thank you all who support me. I appreciate it more than you'll ever know.

I may (?) write a continuation to this fic (just another oneshot to go with) set in their future, but I haven't decided. If I do you'll see me again :3

Thanks for reading this~!

Read on~!

~Disclaimer~ I own only visions of starlit ponds and illusions of perfect first kisses, nothing more.


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